(continued)

The traditional parties, like the Communists or liberal parties like Yabloko, have also tried setting up youth wings that imitate the National Bolsheviks, but not with the success you've had. Then the Kremlin set up Nashi—or "We"—as its youth organization. What do you think of Nashi?
Nashi's primary objective is to break our organization. That's why they were created. It was the Kremlin's response to the National Bolsheviks.

They've also physically attacked you; for example, at the Communist youth meeting your party.
I welcome witnesses, but I don't expect much from help from Western journalists. I prefer to have my Russian media reporting on our activityYes, there've been many assaults on our activists, and some of these attacks have been carried out by big mobs attacking us—up to 50 people attacking at a time. But then lately they've been assaulting us less often in mass attacks. The last time was when they attacked me on April 13, 2006.

Nashi activists attacked you?
There are several Kremlin youth groups that are essentially the same, so it doesn't matter the actual name—Nashi, Locals, Young Guard, whatever. This last attack took place at the Tagansky Court, April 13, 2006.

What happened?
I had seven of my party members in prison for one and a half years. I was at a court hearing, and when I left we were attacked by 40 people waiting for us in the courtyard. It was a day when we fought the court's decision to reject our appeal of their decision not to register the National Bolshevik party as a political organization.

Getting back to Kasparov, for some reason in the Western media, they try to make Other Russia out to be an entirely Kasparov-run affair, and when it comes to you, they seem to downplay your role in the party. It gives the sense that Western journalists are afraid of you. I know of one Western correspondent who said he finally met you after 15 years working the Moscow beat, and he was clearly afraid all that time to meet you, but when he finally did interview you, he was surprised at how nice and civilized you turned out to be. Why are so many Western journalists afraid of Limonov?
First of all, we don't work for Western journalists. We work for our people. Western journalists are present as witnesses. Kasparov has his attitude toward Western journalists and the West and the United States. My attitude is, yes, I welcome witnesses, but I don't expect much from help from Western journalists. I prefer to have my Russian media reporting on our activity. It's much more helpful for us. Unfortunately, though, we're less and less free here. As a rule, I don't think that politicians should look much at journalists. In my opinion, the journalists are just a small part of our job. For a journalist, I have a press attaché.

With all this new wealth of the past several years, Muscovites have become voracious consumers. People are now totally wrapped up in buying shit. How does this materialistic craze of the past five to six years affect Other Russia's chances?
It doesn't affect my thinking whatsoever, because we are not even allowed to participate in the elections. We are in a struggle against a police state. Most of the population of every country is not politically active. It's a typical story. But changes in political systems of any country are usually done by a minority of people, not by the majority, not by people who are affected by consumerism or some other craziness. But I'm not even considering this. We now have 22 million people in Russia who earn less than 2,800 rubles per month, and this gives us an enormous army of poor to support us. That is information from the Levada Center (a think tank), which is pretty reliable, and according to them we have 22 million people really, really poor. It's just over $100 per month to live on. And if you factor in our high prices here, it's awful.

Russia now has one of the worst wealth gaps in the world.
I don't object to rich people being rich, but I am against the poor being so poor as they are here. There are too many poor here. But that's a problem that we'll try to solve down the line. For now, our objective is to allow a free parliament where all political parties are allowed to compete and express themselves. We need free elections in which all parties can participate. Now we have what is really a one-party system. The only make-believe opposition party in parliament is the Communist party. But the rest, the other three pro-Kremlin parties—Zhirinovsky's party, Just Russia, and United Russia—are all three heads of the same dragon, yes? And they have more than 80 percent of the seats in the new parliament. I want to change the system first, and then to proceed to other tasks.

A lot of journalists still accuse you or your party of being fascist or having a fascist streak.
You constantly bring up what journalists write about me. Actually, I can only repeat what I said before: I don't work for Western journalists. They are free to think what they believe about me, but I'm not worrying about it. For me, the most important thing is to be liked by my own people, and I think my people like me more and more. That's what I see constantly.

You spent about two and a half years in jails and prisons as really the first political prisoner under Putin. When they locked you up, did you think you'd ever get out of jail? Were you afraid you'd be there for the rest of your life?
I thought I'd get 15 years in prison, but it happened that I got four years. But I wanted to get out one way or another. I said to myself, "I will survive."

How did the other prisoners and the warden treat you?
It was all right. Listen, this is becoming boring for me. Invent something if you have to!

In your novel His Butler's Story, which you published in the early 1980s, you said that you had 25 years left to do the things in life you wanted to do: write a lot of books—and you've written dozens of books and poetry collections, create a political party and take over a state, lead a revolution, and fuck all the girls that you wanted to fuck.
That's a lot of girls. [Laughs.] But you see this was a kind of vision.

And start a cult or religion.
I'm getting closer to that, too. I just wrote a book about this called Heresy. When it's published, you'll see what it's about.

Have you fucked all the girls you've wanted to fuck?
Not all of them. [Laughs.] I still want some more.

When you turned 55, I asked you to write about your secret to staying young and healthy, and you wrote that the main secret was getting rid of your aging wife, finding yourself a young girl, and fucking her. Do you still think that way?
Yes, I still think that way.

Your current wife, Katya, is quite beautiful, but before her you were dating a lot of teenagers. Do you miss the teenagers at all?
We'll see what happens next.

Chairman Mao used to pack his bed full of teenage girls every night. He didn't necessarily have sex with them, but he just wanted to cuddle with them to keep himself young and full of enthusiasm.
Maybe, maybe. Okay, that's enough. I have to go eat something!

This article is from the March issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here
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